Posted on 05/10/2003 7:57:08 PM PDT by Destro
Sunday May 11, 12:52 AM
Thirteen dead in bomb blast in southern Philippines
COTABATO, Philippines (AFP) - Thirteen people were killed and 26 others wounded Saturday when two bombs, suspected to have been planted by a Muslim gang, exploded simultaneously in the southern Philippine city of Koronadal, officials said.
The bombs, consisting of 81 millimeter mortar rounds and a timing device, were detonated in front of the public market, creating carnage.
Hospital officials said the death toll could go higher as many of the wounded were in critical condition.
Provincial Governor Daisy Fuentes quoted a police report as saying the bombs were inside bags being carried by two men who were about to board a motorcycle sidecar when the devices went off.
A few hours later, an improvised bomb with a timer, attached to a liquefied gas cylinder, was found planted near the city fire department, local army commander Colonel Agustin Dima-ala said.
The bomb squad detonated this device safely.
Koronadal City Mayor Fernando Miguel said that a man identifying himself as Abu Sulaiman, a member of the Abu Muslim outlaw group, called him up after the blast and claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The caller warned there would be more blasts if the gang was not paid four million pesos (75,480 dollars), the mayor said, adding that Abu Sulaiman had been calling him for a year demanding money.
Miguel said he would not be cowed by the threats, but added he could not be sure if the caller was really behind the attack.
Abu Sulaiman is a spokesman of the Abu Muslim group which has been linked to the Abu Sayyaf, a feared Muslim kidnapping gang operating in the southern islands of Jolo and Basilan.
Abu Sulaiman and the Abu Muslim gang have been blamed for a bomb blast outside a shopping mall in the southern city of General Santos in April last year that killed 15 people.
Regional police Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Tor earlier said the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) may have been behind the blast since it followed the pattern and methods of earlier MILF bomb attacks.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, however, denied the group had any knowledge of the bombing of the majority-Christian city, located 960 kilometers (595 miles) south of Manila.
"That is not the handiwork of the MILF. Never will the MILF engage in such an activity," he said.
In the wake of the bombing, the military and police set up checkpoints around the city while armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets.
It was the second bomb attack in Koronadal in a month.
A grenade attack in the same part of the city in April, also blamed on the MILF, killed a district chairman and his bodyguard.
The MILF has been blamed for a series of bombings of mainly-Christian cities in the southern Philippines since March, which have claimed more than 30 lives.
The group has also stepped up attacks on civilian targets and military outposts, prompting President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday to call off a series of preliminary peace talks with the MILF originally set to begin on May 9 in Kuala Lumpur.
However, Arroyo's national security adviser Roilo Golez said in a radio interview that the government had not yet identified anyone as the mastermind of the Koronadal bomb attack.
No, the acronym is deliberate. They are violent muslim separatists who also happen to prefer their women to be as experienced as their goats.
The two concepts are not mutualy exclusive, Islam was all about Caravan raiding when Mohamad started it. Robery, theft, extortion, torture, and conquest, all are fine principles of the Koran.
These guys are just following their scriptures literaly.
This speaks volumes about this garbage religion of "peace."
Take a look at America's landscape and see all the mosques that have popped up in the past quarter century.
You won't find Pee Wee's bicycle in the basement, but the fireworks you would find aren't for celebration of the 4th of July!
I can hardly wait for the next juvenile, infantile screed from the Islamonazis about how misunderstood they are!
It's all a fignewton of our imagination.
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